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The Bachelorette received a 13 per cent boost in 18- to 49-year-old viewers Monday after an episode that left observers divided over whether the show had crossed the line in its handling of the death of a contestant.

Eric Hill, a 31-year-old adventurer from Citrus Heights, Calif., was on the series for only four episodes when he and Bachelorette Andi Dorfman had a disagreement and she asked him to leave. Several weeks later, while Dorfman was visiting the hometowns of the remaining four contestants, Hill was in a serious paragliding accident. He died on April 23.

Monday’s Bachelorette episode showed Dorfman and the men gathering at host Chris Harrison’s house in L.A., where he broke the news of Hill’s death. There was shocked silence and tears, and the crew put down their cameras and joined in the grieving.

On his blog Tuesday, Harrison defended the decision to show those moments on TV.

“For 13 years we’ve built this franchise by showing you everything that happens, whether it’s good, bad, dramatic, or sad. I just didn’t see how all of a sudden because something so tragic affected all of us that we just wouldn’t show it; it didn’t make sense,” Harrison wrote. “What happened was horribly sad and tragic, but to me acting like it just didn’t happen and going on like Eric never existed seemed horribly dishonest and disrespectful.”

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“I believe it was handled with respect to Eric, his family, the cast, and the viewers,” one commenter on the blog said. “It never felt exploitive; only honest and real.”

But critics argued that the moment could have been acknowledged without showing it on TV, or that ABC could have turned part of the episode over to Hill’s family or to sharing information about Hill.

“That moment last night wasn’t for Eric. The way The Bachelorette handled it, it more or less became all about Andi, her bachelors, and even the crew and how they all reacted to the death,” Andrew Gruttadaro wrote on the Hollywood Life blog. “Andi seemed broken up because she had been mean to Eric in their last conversation before she sent him home, not because a young, kind soul was gone.”

One thing is certain: Hill’s death will be a topic of conversation when the Men Tell All episode airs on July 21 (City at 8 p.m.).

Meanwhile, Hill’s family and friends are keeping his memory alive through the #LiveLikeEric campaign. Harrison urged viewers to visit the website LiveLikeEric.com and support the charitable foundation set up in Hill’s name.

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